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The Jew as a doppelgänger: the role of the double in the constitution of identity

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Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the role the double plays in the constitution of identity, focusing on the movement between the individual and the collective level. Notably, the latter today is often considered through the lens of identity politics. The double, I argue, poses an alternative to this type of politics, by showing the interdependence of groups. As a case study, this paper focuses on the complex relationship between the anti-Semite and the Jew as depicted by Sartre. I begin with a psychoanalytical examination of the figure of the double,follow on with an analysis of Sartre's work in the light of the double, and conclude with Girard's theory of mimetic desire.

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Notes

  1. For a survey of the ancient figure of the Double as a twin brother see Keppler (1972, pp. 14–26).

  2. For a detailed account of the double see Dorfman (2020).

  3. See Hegel (1977, pp. 114–119). Hegel’s theory had a major influence on the thought of both Lacan and Sartre through the mediation of Alexandre Kojève.

  4. See, for example, Poe (1998), Maupassant (2005), Wilde (2002). I will discuss Wilde below.

  5. Rank (1971).

  6. Ibid. pp. 71–74.

  7. Ibid., p. 73.

  8. It is noteworthy that the protagonists of doppelgänger stories are most often male. Charlotte Goodman examines female protagonists in Bildungsromane written by women novelists (e.g. Wuthering Heights), and shows that it is not another woman who plays the role of the double in these works but rather the protagonist’s brother, with whom she falls in love. See Goodman (1983).

  9. Ibid., pp. 84–85. A similar idea is developed in Eliade (1959).

  10. Rank (1971, p. 86).

  11. Lacan (2007, pp. 75–82).

  12. Ibid., p. 78.

  13. Ibid., p. 79.

  14. Ovid (1986, pp. 61–66).

  15. Lacan further develops these themes in his 1948 “Aggressiveness in Psychoanalysis.” Aggressiveness, according to this text, is derived from the mirror stage and is “linked to the narcissistic relationship and to the structures of systematic misrecognition and objectification that characterize ego formation.” Lacan (2007, p. 94).

  16. Sartre (1995).

  17. Ibid., p. 8.

  18. Ibid., p. 19.

  19. Ibid., p. 7.

  20. See Canon (1991).

  21. Wilde (1993). See also Rank (1971, p. 78).

  22. As we will see with Girard, when a cycle of violence starts, it is very difficult to end it, and indeed, the Nazi violence quickly expanded to include these other minorities.

  23. For an elaborate analysis of the reasons for antisemitism, see Prager and Telushkin (2003). For a discussion of antisemitism in the French context see Sternhell (1996).

  24. For an analysis of this figure in Sartre’s text with regard to the question of universalism, see Schor (1999).

  25. Sartre (1971, pp. 39–41).

  26. It should be said, however, that this “head” is mostly the product of Sartre’s own imagination. In a certain sense, as Sartre himself later confessed, the Jew he depicted was his own double and mirror image, not only that of the anti-Semite and the democrat. Hammerschlag (2010, pp. 68–69), Walzer (1995). For a critical analysis of Sartre’s treatment of the Jew see Suleiman (1999).

  27. Sartre (1995, p. 56).

  28. Simone de Beauvoir and Frantz Fanon show very clearly how men depend on women and white people on black ones, by attributing to them the easy category of the “Other.” My claim is that the true category concealed by the word “Other” is precisely the double. Beauvoir (2009), Fanon (2008).

  29. Sartre (2018).

  30. Ibid., p. 355.

  31. Ibid., p. 356.

  32. Ibid., pp. 712, 799.

  33. Ibid., pp. 356–357.

  34. Ibid., p. 359.

  35. Ibid., p. 366.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. See Freud (1919, p. 248).

  39. Sartre (1995, pp. 64–102). Another use of this knowledge, albeit an implicit one, is presented by Homi K. Bhabha (1984) in his notion of mimicry with regard to the colonial subject. This practice could also be applied to Judith Butler’s notion of performative acts – in terms of repetition and imitation. See Butler (1990).

  40. Sartre (1995, p. 74).

  41. Sartre himself talks about the role of gender within Jewishness, borrowing from Wilhelm Stekel the case of a Jewish husband who is constantly aware and ashamed of the Jewishness of his wife. She therefore finds herself helpless in the face of his scornful gaze, since she can no longer deny her position as a double: “As a young girl, she was proud; everybody admired her distinguished and assured manner. Now she trembles all the time for fear of making a mistake; she fears the criticism that she reads in the eyes of her husband. . At the least mishap, he might reproach her with acting Jewish” (ibid., p. 75).

  42. Girard (1977, pp. 49–50).

  43. Ibid., pp. 169–190.

  44. Ibid., p. 51.

  45. Ibid., pp. 246, 259.

  46. Ibid., pp. 39–49.

  47. Ibid., pp. 160–166. In fact, for Girard, “doubles are always monstrous” (ibid., p. 162), since they uncover what Kristeva would call one’s abject origin, the lack of differences between me and myself, between me and the Other.

  48. Ibid., pp. 166–168. See also Hardt and Negri (2004).

  49. For an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on Girard see Farneti 2013.

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  1. Literature Department, Tel Aviv University, 6997801, Tel Aviv, P.O.B. 39040, Israel

    Eran Dorfman

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Dorfman, E. The Jew as a doppelgänger: the role of the double in the constitution of identity. Cont Philos Rev 55, 353–369 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-022-09582-z

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